Climate Change

Mapped: Climate change laws around the world. There has been a 20-fold increase in the number of global climate change laws since 1997, according to the most comprehensive database of relevant policy and legislation.

The database, produced by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Sabin Center on Climate Change Law, includes more than 1,200 relevant policies across 164 countries, which account for 95% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The database shows the extent to which climate change legislation has permeated global political discourse, as well as variations in approach between developed and developing countries.

You can explore the database via the interactive map, below. The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it. After 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth, we have arrived at new point in history: the Anthropocene.

The change has come upon us with disorienting speed.
How Psychology Can Save The World From Climate Change : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture. A man walks through hundreds of pairs of shoes displayed in Paris as part of a rally called "Paris sets off for climate" on Sunday, Nov. 29.

More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks this week. Laurent Cipriani/AP hide caption toggle caption Laurent Cipriani/AP A man walks through hundreds of pairs of shoes displayed in Paris as part of a rally called "Paris sets off for climate" on Sunday, Nov. 29. More than 140 world leaders are gathering around Paris for high-stakes climate talks this week. Laurent Cipriani/AP Representatives from nearly 200 countries are meeting in France today to discuss climate change — and for good reason. To quote President Obama's State of the Union Address from earlier this year: "No challenge — no challenge — poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.
" Yet public sentiment lacks the sense of urgency these remarks ought to instill.
Are You Deep-in-the-Gut Worried About Climate Change? Take Our Survey.

By David Ropeik Yet another survey of public opinion about climate change has confirmed what was already well-understood.

Most people believe that the climate is changing. Fewer, roughly half, think humans have anything to do with it. And overwhelmingly, people aren’t all that worried.
The Anthropocene Myth. Last year was the hottest year ever recorded.

And yet, the latest figures show that in 2013 the source that provided the most new energy to the world economy wasn’t solar, wind power, or even natural gas or oil, but coal. The growth in global emissions — from 1 percent a year in the 1990s to 3 percent so far this millennium — is striking. It’s an increase that’s paralleled our growing knowledge of the terrible consequences of fossil fuel usage.
George Marshall. Why geoengineering can be only part of the climate solution.

We are deluding ourselves: The apocalypse is coming — and technology can’t save us. Last week, Salon ran an article, “Thanks for killing the planet, boomers!

,” where I argued that it’s wholly unrealistic to assume humanity will undertake the massive, world-changing, economy-disrupting policy solutions needed for us to even stand a chance of long-term survival. Given that our local political and economic systems are as fragile, stalled and polarized as they’ve been in most of American history, these predictions only seem more dire, and the problem only more intractable.

Oil and Power. The truth about climate change?
A recent article by Naomi Klein raises all kinds of disturbing questions.

Things are so bad from the perspective of climate change, she claims, that climate scientists are beginning to sound alarm bells. This in itself speaks volumes. By temperament scientists prefer to search for truth whether in the lab or the field, not engage in propaganda wars - which have little to do with truth. In war, truth is always the first casualty. Global food production may be adversely affected by climate change and global warming in the near future, raising the specter of geopolitical chaos and genocidal wars over land and access to resources. Such an analysis is frightening for obvious (and not so obvious) reasons.
Why global water shortages pose threat of terror and war. On 17 January, scientists downloaded fresh data from a pair of Nasa satellites and distributed the findings among the small group of researchers who track the world's water reserves.

At the University of California, Irvine, hydrologist James Famiglietti looked over the data from the gravity-sensing Grace satellites with a rising sense of dread.
Considering Extinction: Are We Falling Off the Climate Precipice?
Jamail explores what climate scientists just beyond the mainstream are thinking about how climate change will affect life on this planet.

What, in other words, is the worst that we could possibly face in the decades to come? The answer: a nightmare scenario.I grew up planning for my future, wondering which college I would attend, what to study, and later on, where to work, which articles to write, what my next book might be, how to pay a mortgage, and which mountaineering trip I might like to take next.

Now, I wonder about the future of our planet. During a recent visit with my eight-year-old niece and 10- and 12-year-old nephews, I stopped myself from asking them what they wanted to do when they grew up, or any of the future-oriented questions I used to ask myself. I did so because the reality of their generation may be that questions like where they will work could be replaced by: Where will they get their fresh water? The route had changed dramatically enough to stun me.
Geoengineering: Can We Save the Planet by Messing with Nature?
Guests Clive Hamilton professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia.

James Lovelock: 'enjoy life while you can: in 20 years global warming will hit the fan'
In 1965 executives at Shell wanted to know what the world would look like in the year 2000. They consulted a range of experts, who speculated about fusion-powered hovercrafts and "all sorts of fanciful technological stuff". When the oil company asked the scientist James Lovelock, he predicted that the main problem in 2000 would be the environment. "It will be worsening then to such an extent that it will seriously affect their business," he said. "And of course," Lovelock says, with a smile 43 years later, "that's almost exactly what's happened.
"
Climate Change 2013: Where We Are Now - Not What You Think. The flats on Padre Island National Seashore, Texas, are only inches above sea level. This year, sea level rise could have taken these flats, forever, in time frames that matter.Click here to support news free of corporate influence by donating to Truthout.

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What bike helmets can teach about climate change — Howie Chong : Howie Chong. My previous post on bike helmets seems to have garnered a lot of interest. My little blog went from a handful of visits a day to several hundred visits an hour. According to my web host, my week to week page views are up a projected 62,000%.

Someone even linked my post on Reddit.
Two reasons climate change is not like other environmental problems. Rationally Speaking, We Are All Apocalyptic Now. (Photo: thierry ehrmann / Flickr)If we are rational and consider objective scientific evidence of environmental collapse including groundwater depletion, topsoil loss, chemical contamination, ocean dead zones, species extinction, bio-diversity reduction and climate disruption, we need to be apocalypticists, argues Robert Jensen.

Modern green movement: Eco-pragmatists are challenging traditional environmentalists over scope of nature. Photo by Harley Soltes.
It’s Not Easy Being Green by Joseph Heath - The Literary Review of Canada. A couple of years ago, while contemplating the dandelions running riot alongside the road in front of my house, I decided it was time to get a weed whacker. I went down to my local Canadian Tire to see what was available.

Andrew Simms - 50 months to avoid climate disaster – and a change is in the air. Sandy puts climate change back on the US election agenda. The images of a paralysed New York City at the mercy of Hurricane Sandy's wall of water have forced climate change on to the political agenda in the final week of the 2012 presidential election campaign. Even before Sandy made landfall political commentators were debating whether the storm would be better for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama.
Sandy forces climate change on US election despite fossil fuel lobby. Cross-posted from The Guardian Such is Big Energy's hold on DC, neither Obama nor Romney talk about climate change.

Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed - video. Why the 'Idle No More' Movement Is Our Best Chance for Clean Land and Water. Photo Credit: Caelie Frampton January 13, 2013 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. As Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence enters her fourth week of a hunger strike outside the Canadian parliament building, thousands of protesters voice their support in Los Angeles, London, Minneapolis, and New York City.
Clarifying My Views about Anthropogenic Climate Change.